1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to obstacle detection apparatus and method for an automotive vehicle which are capable of detecting a position of an object with a high accuracy by trapping redundantly a detected object of a distance measuring (ranging) sensor such as a laser radar or millimeter-wave radar and of a camera such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) camera or CMOS (Complementary Monolithic Oxide Semiconductor) camera and are capable of compensating for a lost of the trapped object by means of the ranging sensor.
2. Description of the Related Art
A Japanese Patent Application First Publication No. Heisei 7-125567 published on May 16, 1995 exemplifies a previously proposed obstacle detection apparatus for the automotive vehicle. In the previously proposed obstacle detection apparatus, in a case where the laser radar detects an object, a stereo camera serves to detect the object redundantly for an image region corresponding to a position of the object detected by the laser radar to aim at an improvement in a reliability. In the previously proposed obstacle detection apparatus, the image processing region to be redundantly detected by the camera is limited on the basis of the position of a preceding vehicle traveling in a forward direction of the vehicle, it is possible to execute the image processing at a high speed.